April 15, 2013

Creamy Cilantro-Lime Dressing

I've been wanting to make my own creamy cilantro dressing ever since we tried the one from Trader Joe's last year. Store-bought dressings are convenient, but making your own brings a whole new level of flavor and freshness that's hard to beat. Plus you can control the ingredients, leave out additives/preservatives, and tweak it so it suits your taste buds just right. Yogurt is a great alternative for achieving creaminess and it works fantastic in this dressing. (Update: avocado also works, and is my go-to now!) You can serve it right away, or make it ahead of time to chill in the fridge so it's ready to go whenever you are. It's great on salads, wraps, drizzled on tacos for an extra flavor boost, and as a fun veggie dip. We love tossing it with the Southwestern Chopped Salad - delicious! :)

Notes and variationsWe love this basic, light, refreshing dressing as is, but it's also easily customizable. Here are just a few ideas if you'd like to play around to please your own taste buds:

To add heat, use cayenne pepper or jalapeno.
For a different flavor combo, add cumin, more garlic, or more lime juice.
If you prefer to tone down the tartness, add a little honey/agave.
For vegan/dairy-free, use plain non-dairy yogurt. Avocado also works great! (You can also use this recipe as a guide, replacing lemon-basil with cilantro-lime.)

AH - I wish I had an answer for that! I'm certainly no expert in food safety, so unfortunately the best answer I can give is use your best judgement :) In our house, it's always eaten up within a few days, so anything past that I'm not sure. I would guess it'd be good for at least a week, possibly more. Sorry I couldn't be more help, but hope you enjoy!

Hi Samantha! I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head so after a little research I found this. Might be worth a shot! Hope that helps :)http://www.wisdomfromthekitchen.com/fat_free_oil_substitite.html

In my notes and variations above I addressed some possible options to achieve tang and spice if that's what you were hoping for. The dressing itself is meant to be basic, creamy and refreshing, while still allowing room for people to tweak it to their tastes if needed.

Thanks so much! :) So happy to hear you liked it. Totally agree about the garlic! I always add at least two huge cloves. I have to remember to dial back the garlic when I write out my recipes, keeping in mind not everyone is as garlic-crazed as I am ;) Thanks for the message!

I thought this was delicious! I used 1 avocado instead of the greek yogurt, buttermilk instead of the oil (to desired consistency), and added 2 jalapenos and 1/2 of a small onion. Thanks for the great idea!

Hi Tifanie! If you have cider vinegar, that would work. Or possibly even fresh lemon juice - I bet the natural acidity would work in place of the vinegar. Good luck! Let me know how it turns out if you get the chance :)

Just made this dressing! Working on the Southwest salad to go along with it! I am thinking the salad and dressing combo would work well as a salad in a jar if I layered the ingredients instead of mixing. Thanks for the recipes!

It was truly a delight. Made the dressing with the Southwestern Chopped Salad, and together it was amazing. I really enjoyed it and will definitely be making it again, maybe adding chicken next time. Super healthy, and Super Delicious! Thanks!! :)

found you on Pinterest-made the salad and dressing for company(why do I always have company when I try new stuff??)and it was amazing! I love that it is pretty much guilt-free eating. I did add a smidge of Stevia to the dressing but it probably would have been fine,made a southwest ranch dressing for another option, and added chicken to the chopped salad. Now I have lots of ready-made salads in the fridge for lunches this week. love it! Thanks for the recipe.

Hi Susan! Haha, awesome to hear you were brave and tried this for the first time with company over :) And even better to hear it worked out! Yay! The southwest ranch dressing sounds crazy good too. I LOVE having salads ready to go in the fridge throughout the week. Makes life easy and delicious :D

I love this and eat a lot salad so I just made it for the second time. Sometimes I sprinkle some Cholulu pepper sauce over it and it gives it punch while still being healthy. I'm sure any of the bottled hot sauces would work well. Thanks!

I made this with plain greek yogurt, and wish I hadn't. I also added some solid coconut milk to "tone down" the tartness of the GY - next time I will eliminate the GY altogether & sub with the coconut milk.

Hi there, and thanks for your feedback! I made a note in the variations above for those looking to avoid the tartness from the Greek yogurt. I hope it suits your taste better next time using all coconut milk instead! :)

So glad to find this! Always wonder why folks not happy with a recipe feel they must add their negative opinion, quite sad. Beyond that, loved the dressing. Had to add some almond milk to get it to blend in my blender. I think it was because the greek yogurt I used was quite thick. Just delicious. Like the idea of adding more garlic and perhaps some chili or peppers. Poured it over my egg-white omelet - perfect!

Made this to go along with the southwest salad, it was great! I added about a 1/4 cup of greek yogurt and 1/2 an avocado. It was still quite thick so I added some coconut water. Also added a jalapeno. I will be making this again, thanks!

this is such a great little recipe. had a half of a lime and some left over cilantro and greek yogurt so decided to give this one a try. only had apple cider vinegar, so used that instead. garlic bunch i was working with had three cloves left, so i decided to throw in the extra one. might have gone a wee bit strong on the garlic as a result, however still very good. color is beautiful too! i'm thinking this could be good on chicken or even in replace of sour cream on tacos. thanks so much for sharing!

Thanks for the recipe! I used it tonight for some Mexican salad. I was a little nervous when I tasted it in my finger because it seemed a little strong, but on the salad it added the prefect amount of kick.

I just made this. I like the concept, but it needs some tweaking. i'd ditch the oil altogether- unnecessary. I found it overpowering, like it left an oilyness in my mouth. and add more lemon and salt, but that's just personal preference. I like a lot of flavor.

Wow! I found this recipe via Pinterest and just made this dressing tonight. It is so delicious! I had to stop myself from eating it all with a spoon before it made it's way to the salad. I am dairy free for now, so I used avocado instead of the yogurt and I added a dash of coconut milk to achieve the desired consistency. Really really good! So excited to add it to my arsenal :)

Hey Kate! I share your struggle in resisting to devour this all with a spoon every time I make it. I suppose that's what double batches are for? ;) So glad you were able to tweak it to your taste and enjoy it! Thanks for the message!

I just made your dressing. I added some hot sauce, a bit more garlic, used rice wine vinegar and added a teaspoon of sugar. It tastes amazing and I can't wait to add it to the salad tonight. It reminded me a bit of a chip dip we used to get in Austin but that had an additional ranch flavor. I think this would be great over fish tacos as well!

Found this recipe on Pinterest and I'm going to make it for the 4th party at my house. I'm going to use sour cream and buttermilk in place of the greek yogurt. I'm sure it will be delicious even though it may not be as low in fat as it could be. ;)

I made this salad dressing last night and really liked it! Everything blended up nicely, and between the cilantro and garlic there was a nice kick. Next time I'll add some more kick with pepper/cayenne. I really enjoyed having a creamy salad dressing while still being healthy.

I have made it twice already and I love it. I love the tart flavor, the freshness the cilantro gives and the creamy texture.

The first time I made it, I might have added a little bit less garlic and followed the rest of ingredient list. The second time I made it, I omitted the salt, added more cilantro and lime and added a spoonful of cream cheese. It is SO yummy, I also love how it is so simple to make.l

Has anyone compared this recipe with the awesome Cilantro Dressing from The Cheesecake Factory Restaurant? I know theirs is dairy free and I believe was told has a little orange juice in it in addition to Lime and maybe even a little pineapple juice. It has no preservatives. I purchased a bottle at a rest. recently and it had to be refrigerated on the way home from out of town. It did last over a week.

Hi Suzanne! Thanks for the message. I've never tried The Cheesecake Factory's cilantro dressing - that sounds amazing. I love the addition of other citrus flavors and pineapple juice. People have had great success making this one dairy free with avocado in place of greek yogurt if you want to give that a shot!

I made this dressing last night. We were going to have the Southwestern Chop Salad with it but my back crapped out. The dressing was WAY too tart for both of us and I added some honey to even the flavors out. Worked great! It's really thick but I'm guessing it will get thinned out a little by the juices/wetness of the ingredients. It's now going to be dinner for today.

Ahhh that's awesome! I also tone it down with honey for my family members that don't enjoy the tartness as much as we do ;) And how sweet of you to cook dinners for people at church! Thanks for the message - take care :)

This looks delicious! Any idea how long it keeps? I have some cilantro that is about to go bad, and I am wondering if I might be able to preserve its life by turning it into salad dressing... thoughts?

Hi there! We've kept this in the fridge for about 4-5 days before it gets eaten up (so anything past that I'm not sure.) I've also used cilantro right before it goes bad and it seems to hold up well in the dressing! Hope you love it :)

I got a great deal on cilantro the other day, 4 bunches for $1. I was actually looking for a cilantro pesto recipe, but found this first and Im glad I did! I made it last night, totally inspired by your southwest salad and it turned out great. Here are my tweaks according to what my pantry and fridge had: I used Meyer lemon (just squeezed about 2 quarts last weekend) added about one Tablespoon of oil to help emulsify, apple cider vinegar and.. this is the best part - as well as 1 cloved of garlic, I added 1 teaspoon of GARLIC JELLY. Yes, Garlic Jelly! It added some sweetness to the acidic lemon/vinegar and more garlic flavor. I got the jelly as a travel gift to myself while driving thru Gilroy, CA (the Garlic Capitol) To give this gift to anyone else, I would include a recipe card or two - this recipe being one of them. Thanks for being here and posting this great, totally tweakable recipe! Have a great day :)

Oh I get so excited for cilantro deals :D 4 for $1 is amazing!! I loved reading your message and am so happy you liked the dressing. Garlic jelly - whaaaaat!?!? My mind is blown. I've definitely never heard of that, but feel I need to make a road trip ASAP to the garlic capitol now ;) Your version of this dressing sounds incredible!! Thanks for sharing!

I made this twice now and both times it got an amazing response. My sister loved it and I did not at all think she would. I never use a recipe to its entirety, I always modify it like crazy. With this one, I added more cilantro (about 1 1/4 cup), cumin, paprika, honey, a couple shakes cayenne pepper sauce, juice & zest of 1/2 lime and 1 oz of tequila. The paprika and cayenne pepper sauce added a subtle kick at the end and the tequila added a unique flavor. Still stuck with the 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt, 2 cloves garlic, and 1/4 (ish) EVOO. I omitted the vinegar because I didn't have any and I am not a huge fan anyway. Thank you for sharing this! Sorry for all the mods! :D

Hey Erika! I'm definitely the same way with recipes, and have trouble following them exactly :) I love hearing when people tweak the recipes to suit their taste. Glad you did, and glad it was a success!! Tequila - NICE! ;)

I love this recipe.... I used whole avocado no yogurt than added some spinach and 4oz of sundried tomatoes ....poured over roasted asparagus broccoli threw in some spinach artichokes and shrimp.....yummmmmmmmmm thank you for sharing!